Then what the poor human creatures could achieve.(13)(l)
Tenth Parable of Auspicious Chritars Conversation of the Raja and the Minister, Completed with Benediction. (10)(184)
Dohira
Then the minister explained the secret to the great king.
Then the Minister inculcated and narrated this tenth Chritar.(1)
A shopkeeper used to live in the city of Peshawar, whose wife was overrun by bad characters.
She had killed the shopkeeper and immolated herself with his dead body. Now I am going to recite their tale:(2)
The shopkeeper went away on a business trip.
In his absence she could not control her passion and invited a person to live with her in the house.(3)
Whenever hungry, her baby cried for milk, but, day in or day out,
She kept herself busy in love-makmg.( 4)
Chaupaee
When the son was hungry and called (to the mother).
Once when the baby cried hard seeking feed, her lover asked her,
O woman! You shut it up
‘Go, silence the child and, then, eliminate my sensual agonies.’(5)
(He) got up and kissed her.
The lady went and tried to breast feed him but child would not get quiet.
With his own hands (he) killed his son
(To quieten him), she suffocated the baby with her own hands and, then, took the man out of his erotic miseries.(6)
When the boy remained silent, the friend said,
Noticing the baby’s sudden stoppage of weeping, the man asked,
‘Why your child is not crying now.’
She disclosed, ‘For the sake of your pleasure I have killed my son.’(7)
Dohira
Learning the fact, he was much scared and rebuked her for doing
Thus to the baby.(8)
When he reproved her action severely, she took out a sword and
Immediately cut his head off.(9)
With the help of another person she dug out a hole in the corner and
Buried them both in it.(10)
(Incidentally,) a mendicant was there at the time, who had watched the entire episode.
He went and narrated the whole story to his friend, the shopkeeper.(11)
Chaupaee
Hearing (the guest's) words, Bania came home.
Learning the fact, the shopkeeper came home and asked his wife thus,
If (you) dig up the corner of the house,
‘Dig that corner and show me, otherwise I will not live in this house.’(l2)
Arril
When the man said thus to the woman, she flew into a rage,
Took out the sword and killed him too.
Decapitating him she started crying aloud,
‘The thieves raided the house and killed my husband.’(13)
Dohira
‘They killed my husband they killed my son and took all our wealth.
‘Now, with the beat of the drum I declare that I will become a Sati by immolating myself with him.’(14)
Next morning she headed towards the funeral pyre and the people
Followed, too, with firewood in their hands, to observe the spectacle.(15)
Listening to the beats of the drums and observing the movement of
The people, that mendicant, who had seen all the happenings, came along too.(16)